ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO and M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 Motherboards Review

Conclusion - M4A785TD-V EVO

If we had to sum up the M4A785TD-V EVO in a single sentence, we’d have to say the following: The M4A785TD-V EVO is an awesome board at an awesome price!

First and foremost, the overall layout of the “V” is good. We encountered no issues to speak of, and large tower heatsinks and full-length video cards do not obstruct any of the board’s components. We’d also have to say that ASUS M4A785TD-V is very solidly built. We were pleased to see 8+2 phase power considering the board’s price point, and solid capacitors all around. The “V” also employs a copper PCB layer to improve thermals, which is an added bonus along with well sized and effective heatsinks were also placed on key components, including board MOSFETs.

The real surprises however really came in the M4A785TD-V’s overclocking and tweaking abilities. ASUS did a great job of the retail BIOS, and unlocking Deneb core CPUs is a piece of cake. Not only can you unlock them, but you can decide just what cores you’d like to enable and disable for greater control. We were also very impressed by ASUS’ load line calibration in the “V”. Put simply, it can be fine tuned to any degree of vdroop desired. These features, coupled with a very solid power delivery system made overclocking with the “V” a very pleasurable experience. We were able to push our X2 550 well beyond 4GHz, and could even achieve reference clocks beyond 350MHz which good news for those without Black Edition processors.

We were also thoroughly impressed by AMD’s 785G and the Radeon 4200 IGP. Although it’s gaming performance is nowhere near discrete card levels, it is certainly isn’t what most have come to expect from integrated graphics. Although we look forward to the next generation of IGP from AMD, those interested in taking the 4200 core to the next level won’t be disappointed. With a bit of active cooling and some extra voltage, we were literally able to double it’s clock frequency from 500MHz to 1020MHz and significantly improved it’s performance. The included sideport memory is also a nice bonus that also sports some overclocking headroom.

And finally, we couldn’t leave out without mentioning some of the extra features we wouldn’t expect in a board of this price. Support for both 1394 (FireWire), HDMI 1.3, DVI and even optical digital video output were nice to find. Even the software utility bundle was exceptional. The Turbo-V, GPU-NOS and Probe II applications all worked flawlessly and brought new levels of control to the operating system that we’re not used to seeing.

In conclusion – in case you haven’t already guessed – we were very pleased with the M4A785TD-V. It is not every day that a $100 motherboard really stands head and shoulders above dozens of others in it’s price range. We’re pleased to award the M4A785TD-V EVO with Hardware Canucks’ “DAM GOOD” and “DAM GOOD VALUE” awards.


Pros:

- All solid capacitors and 2oz copper PCB
- Very capable IGP solution, VGA, DVI and HDMI 1.3 output
- Included 1394 support – rare in budget priced boards.
- 8+2 Phase CPU power design that supports 140W CPUs
- Very effective and tweakable load-line-calibration! Solid voltage regulation.
- Excellent overclocker – took our X2 550 to new limits.
- 352MHz reference clock achieved!
- Incredible IGP overclocking headroom with a 104% OC achieved.
- Easy to unlock Deneb processors and good unlocking options.
- Retail BIOS is very solid, easy to navigate and bug free.
- Probe II, GPU-NOS and Turbo-V are all excellent applications
- Excellent price at only $100 CDN and easy to find


Cons:

- Weak accessory bundle
- No onboard power/reset or clear CMOS buttons (we’re getting really picky here)